New Releases by Sam Fox

Fires, both wild and prescribed, have lasting impacts on the landscape and environment. Factors such as fire return interval, timing, and fire intensity and severity all play a role in the direct and indirect impacts fires have on the soil microbial communities (bacteria and fungi). Soil microbes play vital roles in soil stability, nutrient exchange, and many other ecosystem functions. Understanding how fires impact these communities is important for future land management decisions, especially in areas predicted to have more frequent and severe fires. In my dissertation, I first provide a synthetic review of what is currently known about the subject of fire impacts on fungi. This includes ecological frameworks, fungal fire traits, key fire-responsive fungal species, and community dynamics and trajectories. While this review is detailed and explores many facets of fungal responses to fire, I also address areas that still need to be explored, such as functional gene analysis following a fire, and having more controlled fire experiments. Second, I explored how fire frequency impacts the microbial communities residing in different soil horizons- A (topmost), E, and B (bottommost) as well as abiotic attributes that may be indirect drivers of community dynamics such as; Total N, Total C, SOM, inorganic N, P, and pH. For this project, we utilized an experimental infrastructure that had sixty years of continuously maintained, controlled fire regimes. This experiment included replicated experimental units that had been burned annually, every two years, and every four years, as well as a fire exclusion treatment that had not been burned in over sixty years. We observed that fire frequency impacts the microbial communities, but does so mainly in the topmost soil profile. The fire exclusion treatment differed from others when we compared the topmost soil horizons (where most microbial activity occurs). In almost all of our community and abiotic parameters, the fire interval manipulation treatments differed in the topmost A horizon, whereas the two deeper horizons E and B, had only a few parameters that differed between the fire interval treatments. Lastly, I investigate effects of low and high severity fires in a mid- to long-term experiment. This experiment manipulated fire severity and compared high and low severity fires to determine how the microbial communities change over a six-year time span. We also collected samples before the fire samples to enable comparisons to samples after fire to assess community recovery. My results suggested that the high-severity fires had a greater impact on the microbial communities compared to the low severity fires for both bacteria and fungi. Within the high severity fire sites, the communities remained distinct six years post-fire. In the low severity treatments, the communities started to resemble those before the fire, especially richness and diversity of the bacterial communities. This project allowed us to gain valuable understanding in microbial community trajectories following fire, and could aid in planning future restoration projects. Taken together, my dissertation research has allowed us to answer whether and how fire severity and frequency impact the soil microbial community. Indicator taxon analyses that I employed in both studies, identified taxa that seem to drive the community distinctions amongst the treatments, such as fungal taxa, Anthrocobia, Morchella, Pholiolata, and Pyronema which are described as pyrophilous taxa in my synthetic review. My dissertation research strongly indicates that microbial communities change with fire events and that these responses depend on fire interval and severity contexts. Whilst my studies provide considerable insight into the microbial responses to fire, the underlying reasons why they respond still remain complex and poorly understood. In all, fire changes soil chemistry, plant physiology and community composition, soil fauna, and many other system attributes that interact with microbial communities in soil. Exploring which of the many potential drivers are most important for microbial community fire responses and recovery remain a lingering area of research that needs to be explored.

The #1 bestseller that presents seasonal, sustainable, and delicious recipes from Dr. Andrew Weil''s popular True Food Kitchen restaurants. When Andrew Weil and Sam Fox opened True Food Kitchen, they did so with a two-fold mission: every dish served must not only be delicious but must also promote the diner''s well-being. True Food supports this mission with freshly imagined recipes that are both inviting and easy to make. Showcasing fresh, high-quality ingredients and simple preparations with robust, satisfying flavors, the book includes more than 125 original recipes from Dr. Weil and chef Michael Stebner, including Spring Salad with Aged Provolone, Curried Cauliflower Soup, Corn-Ricotta Ravioli, Spicy Shrimp and Asian Noodles, Bison Umami Burgers, Chocolate Icebox Tart, and Pomegranate Martini. Peppered throughout are essays on topics ranging from farmer''s markets to proper proportions to the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet. True Food offers home cooks of all levels the chance to transform meals into satisfying, wholesome fare.

This timely book addresses the need for increasing multi-agency capacity in schools, as the success of initiatives such as ‘Every Child Matters’ or ‘personalised learning’ depends on teachers understanding the challenges faced by young people in learning effectively and happily in their school. The authors of this thought-provoking book present and analyse case studies of collaborative action research, illustrating what is needed in practice for teachers to engage with inclusion for the benefit of their pupils and themselves. The essential elements of success with inclusion are revealed, including: the importance of identifying issues that teachers see as relevant; how teachers can achieve meaningful collaboration in addressing the issues; the necessity of paying careful attention to the consequences of the changes that they make; incorporating practical considerations such as critical support from outsiders; the role of facilitators such as educational psychologists in working with groups of teachers to support their development through action research; how to facilitate change through making use of resources that are already available in the education system. Improving the Context for Inclusion is fascinating reading for all students of education, especially those with an interest in inclusion. Teachers, school leaders and those working in education services will gain an invaluable insight in to how to create an inclusive school environment.

Negrenes historie i Amerika belyst gennem negro-spirituals. Udsat for 1 stemme med becifring